Esoteric Coffeehouse

I have decided that, from time to time, I should talk about the practical applications of esotericism, since, after all, the esoteric perspective combines theory and practice. What better way to start this than to talk about one of the most ‘practical’ of esotericists, Rudolf Steiner, whose teachings are still highly relevant today?   

Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925), the founder of Anthroposophy, can be considered as one of the most brilliant minds of esotericism. His system was not necessarily the most original or insightful, but his genius rested in the ability to create not only a coherent philosophical system but a practical framework as well. By comparison with the mostly theoretical theosophy, whence it drew its roots, anthroposophy has spawned a great number of practical applications. Amongst Steiner’s contributions, the most successful ones have been the Waldorf schools of education, eurythmy (an art of dancing) and biodynamic agriculture. For the purpose of this article, I wish to briefly focus on Steiner’s biodynamic (BD) farming approach.

Steiner’s outspoken interest in agriculture came only late in his life; however, the roots must be sought in his childhood and youth. Steiner grew up in various village communities of the Austrian empire and developed a love of nature and agricultural pursuits. When Steiner was only 21, he met a medicinal herb gatherer, by the name of Felix Kogutski, who imparted to him a new, spiritual perspective of nature (1). Kogutski appeared to have a profound effect on Steiner and was the one to introduce him to his first ‘master’. Steiner’s continuing interest in plant life and dynamics attracted him to the study of Wolfgang Goethe, a revolutionary philosopher of nature. Goethe believed in the existence of an Urpflanze, an archetypal plant form which was an intermediate link between the spiritual realm and the objective reality. Steiner was influenced by Goethe’s views of plant morphology and dynamics in his own speculations (2).

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Before New Age, there was Spiritualism. Just like New Age, Spiritualism started as an American counterculture movement. Just like New Age, it was a spontaneous, ‘democratic’, unorganized form of belief that did not have religious hierarchy or sacred books, at least until very late. The vestiges of Spiritualism are still with us today: ghost sightings, poltergeists, haunted houses, possessed people, mediums etc. Movies like Ghost and the Sixth Sense are but the latest manifestations of a movement that sprang in the middle of the 19th century. Even though Spiritualism waned sometime between the two World Wars, beliefs in ghost manifestations have survived. After all, a 2006 Gallup Organization poll revealed that 32% of Americans believe in ghosts (1).

At the core of Spiritualist belief was the alleged phenomenon of ghost apparitions. The dead appeared to the living in organized sessions called séances, being channeled by human beings with special paranormal gifts called mediums. The pattern was laid out through the first séance that launched the Spiritualist craze, which took place in Hydesville, New York in 1848. The Fox sisters allegedly communicated with the spirit of a dead person which heralded a new era when “the spirits clothed in the flesh are to be more closely and more palpably connected with those who have put on immortality” (2). From there on, the Spiritualist movement spread like wildfire across the United States. Mediums appeared everywhere, organizing spectacular séances where noises (rappings), table turning, automatic writing, levitation, partial or total ghost materialization and others occurred. The democratic nature of séances attracted a great number of those disgruntled with organized religion as well as women seeking liberation from Victorian conventions (3).

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I have spent my last few weeks researching the German theosophist Jacob Boehme, and I thought – why not write an introduction to this esotericist who has influenced so much of modern thinking, including Romanticism, Hegel or Schopenhauer?

Boehme (1575-1624) is mostly known and revered today as the forerunner of modern theosophy, a major esoteric movement made famous by Helena Blavatsky, Rudolf Steiner and Krishnamurti (the latter two in their early years). As conceived by Boehme, theosophy was an eclectic mixture of Christian theology, natural philosophy and mysticism. He perceived the Bible as containing esoteric knowledge about God that he felt he had a duty to reveal.

It all started with a mystical revelation. In 1600, at age 25, Boehme was a rather prosperous shoemaker in the eastern German town of Gorlitz. He had just married, acquired his license to practice shoemaking, and all was set for him to become a respected and average citizen of Gorlitz. But, the legend goes, Boehme was not a happy man; he was depressed and often fell into melancholy. One day, however, as Boehme was sitting at home, he suddenly saw the light of the sun reflected in a tin dish. In one flash, Boehme experienced a mystical vision of God which changed his life forever.

Moved by such a powerful revelation, Boehme began to write his first book, Aurora, which he only finished twelve years later. He never abandoned his ‘day-job’, so to speak: he continued to work as a shoemaker until l613, when he began a yarn business. Yet his mystical-esoteric side got him into trouble with the local Lutheran church, which pronounced him a heretic and forbade him to write. That, of course, did not happen; his Aurora became very popular in several influential circles and subsequently Boehme wrote more than fifteen thick books, which expanded on the first revelations of Aurora.

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